Dr Mark Russell has been appointed as Medical Director for South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

Soumen Sengupta, Director of Health and Social Care for South Lanarkshire, said “I am really pleased to welcome Mark into his new role within the senior leadership teams of South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Lanarkshire. Mark is a highly respected clinician who brings a wealth of expertise and a palpable drive to this key position.

“I am looking forward to the significant contribution that I know that he will make as he builds on the substantial leadership provided by our outgoing Medical Director, Dr Linda Findlay.”

Mark said: “I’m delighted to be the new Medical Director for South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership. I’ve been the Associate Medical Director for Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire since 2020 which has enabled me to forge strong working relationships with colleagues across Lanarkshire’s health and care system.

“I am very much looking forward to joining what I know is a very dynamic team in South Lanarkshire, as well as working constructively with general practices, dentists, community pharmacists and optometrists in my new role.”

Mark graduated from Glasgow University in 2004 and qualified as a GP in 2009. He has worked clinically in NHS Lanarkshire ever since. First in practices in Motherwell and Airdrie for ten years and then as Associate Medical Director for Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire.

He has also previously worked in NHS Education for Scotland as a Research and Development Fellow, and has an ongoing interest in health inequalities, and education and training sparked by this post. He was key in the creation and delivery of the covid-19 vaccination programme during the pandemic and continues to provide clinical input. This was the largest vaccination programme ever undertaken in Lanarkshire.

Mark lives in Lanarkshire and outside of work enjoys spending time with his wife and three young children.